Arsenal match retrospective

Soooo, we've all had a chance to get over it, what did you think?

Key points for me:

Vert & Daws were amazing, they had no right to pull off some of those last minute tackles - more than once I screamed at the telly "WHAT IS HE DOING?!" followed 3 seconds later by, "oh, intercepting really really well and being really good at his job, that's what". It's nice to have that consistency at the back again, it gives MF a good grounding to push forward from, especially with the 2 quick FBs.

The eternal Bale question. I'm not convinced the MF is quite sure of it's shape or individual responsibilities with him in the role behind the striker, and I felt for a reasonable amount of the first half there was almost a reluctance for anyone else to go for goal - it kind of felt like they'd had one of those sketch show tactics talks where the manager goes round each player and asks them what their job is, to which they reply "give it to Bale". I don't think that's AVB's or Bale's fault, just that it looked to me (completely unquantifiably) that they've had a bit of a confidence knock, although it did seem better after the first half hour or so.

On the flip side, I do think that Bale needs to consider his positioning more, too many times we were lacking that 'in the hole' role which he should have been filling, and if anything he's too confident - too many times he should have been passing but didn't seem interested in his team mates. He's like the reserve-Lennon - if he should 70/30 pass he'll shoot, and Lennon's the opposite, even when he had the empty goal 3 feet in front of him he looked like he was looking for someone to pass to!

And as I accidentally mentioned in the other thread, scoring the first goal in the North London Derby and celebrating with the camera, really?! But that's more his personality than his football ;-)

yes,dawson and vert had a great game together. & we still got kaboul who was our best CB last season to come back next season. & caulker is a solid young CB too. so all good in that area.

I really like walker & he is still learning & developing all the time.
ekotto, well I think we can do better as some games he seems to lack the effort & hunger (especially away). but ability wise he is one of the best in the prem. & most games he is good. but just unreliable maybe every 5 or 6 games.

I still think we have to work out the best way to use bale & work around him. if he has a free roaming role then we have too get the balance right. if he sits behind the striker then we are going to have to work out a way of getting round having no width on the left which makes the pitch even narrower.
which is a nightmare against teams who put 11men behind the ball.
the other team know the likes od Dempsey or sig aren't going to sprint down the wing and whip a ball in.

I still think he should start wide left but feel free to come central when he wants. so he sort of ends up being 50% of the time wide left & 50% of the time central.
but obviously if he is having a lot of joy out wide, then stay out there more.
& if he it having more joy out centrally, then stay out there more.

ideally u want a player who can automatically go out wide left and do a decent job when bale goes central. so they can sort of play off bale. so stay in the middle when bale out wide, but then go wide left when bale comes in the middle.

but its a great problem to have as we have 1 of the most in form players in the world right now.

also wanted to say how good was modric when he came on against utd!
I still am a huge fan of his.
he was also superb against barca on Saturday. he ran the show.
great goal against utd too. he doesn't score many but when he does they are usually screamers!
I still think Madrid haven't used him right yet.

when bale does go, I hope its abroad as we need more british players to go abroad to improve our national teams. & ideally id like him to get in a swap for modric & some £££!
id welcome him back. 1 of the best playmakers in the world.
obviously id rather keep bale but he will want to be challenging for CL & titles & be on 200k+ a wk.
but lets just enjoy every moment we have bale at the lane!

I'd say Siggy did that job last night very well, switching with Bale on the left. It was his cross that Bale scored from and he was in the middle for the tap in from Defoe's effort. He seems much more at home now than earlier in the season, must be why AVB didn't want to sell him in January.

I think I still prefer Bale as provider - scaring the backs and drawing play away from the centre.
But, that requires someone in the middle scoring. Daffy was, then dried up a bit and then injured. Ade hasn't looked like it. Dempsey has a few. So I can understand why AVB likes him where he is - maybe that will change if Daffy gets back in and starts scoring again or Ade finds his boots.